


There, Always There

by awfuldaycupcake



Series: Unrelated Christmas One Shots! [1]
Category: Thomas Sanders, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 03:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12950487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awfuldaycupcake/pseuds/awfuldaycupcake
Summary: Thomas had never seen snow before. Never ever. Everyone was expecting Patton to be the excited one, making snowmen and starting snowball fights, but...You can imagine how surprised they were when that person was actually Virgil.





	There, Always There

Thomas hated talking to his sides in public. He hated it. Not only could they barely hear him, but it sparked a ton of strange looks and weirded-out side eyes. The sides would pop up sometimes, but Thomas would very rarely speak to them. Patton would see Christmas lights and spark wonder not only in Thomas, but so much that he’d sink in, the emotion too much to handle. Logan would pop up when there was a problem that caused stress, and Roman would arrive any time Thomas put Disney on the TV. Virgil was often too scared to visit, but even he showed up sometimes. It drove Thomas crazy. He wanted to talk to them so much that it was annoyingly frustrating whenever they were there.

The worst place they’d ever popped up? It was on a plane. Specifically, getting off the plane.

Thomas was going on vacation. Could it really be a vacation if where they were going was freezing cold? It was early December-- the sixth or eighth, Thomas couldn’t remember. Joan’s grandfather or something owned a ski resort in Vermont, and they’d asked Talyn and Thomas up for the weekend. Joan and Talyn were up there a day earlier, and because of scheduling, Thomas would fly in a day late. He was sitting on the airplane, his leg jiggling. Sitting in the empty row of seats in front of him was Roman (intent on curing his boredom,) and Logan (intent on shutting up Roman.) So far, neither of them were successful.

“But I’m bored!” Roman cried, hanging onto Logan’s arm. Logan shoved him off.

“Congratulations. Do you know how not to be bored? By sinking down and leaving Thomas alone. Simple. Additionally, can you not surmise that he is irritated?” Logan said. It was true that Thomas was irritated. The leg jiggling was more because of flight anxiety, but they weren’t helping. It wasn’t that they bugged him; that wasn’t the case at all. The real problem laid in the fact that it was socially unacceptable to speak to them.

The plane landed with a shutter. Finally. Thomas had been up there for what felt like forever. The lights came on, the flight attendants came to the doors, and the doors finally opened.

It was early enough in the morning that the sun was barely risen. Thomas squinted, the bright white of the snow reflecting back against his eyes. Wait a second.

Snow.

Thomas had never seen snow before.

Thomas braced himself for Patton’s inevitable retreat from the mindscape, but… he let himself relax when that didn’t happen. He smiled over the snow, looking at soft purity of it all. It really was beautiful.

Thomas was keeping an eye out for Talyn and Joan. The two of them were meeting him here in about half an hour, just after he got out of security and found his luggage safely. All he had now was his carry-on, cell phone, the blue two-toned coffee mug with weird sine and parabolic functions Logan had insisted on bringing, (something about the germs from drinking other people’s cups? Patton was just excited that he could have hot chocolate whenever he wanted) and Thomas’s favorite pair of earbuds. That wouldn’t exactly help too much without his meds, his toothbrush, and his spare clothes in his suitcase. Those were pretty high priority.

Thomas stepped from the stairs of the plane into the white snow on the ground, and what happened next surprised him.

It wasn’t his morality, but instead Anxiety that projected, looking over the snow with a mature, still-brooding type of wonder. He knelt to the ground, staring it down. Virgil picked up a handful of snow, balling it in his fist. Thomas’s eyebrows furrowed. Huh?

Virgil tossed the snowball from hand to hand, a tiny smile growing on his face. He rolled the snowball on the ground, just really appreciating the feeling of snow on his fingertips. It was cold, but it was soft, squishy almost. It was like sand, but more malleable, more bendable. It didn’t fall between his fingertips but instead stayed together. He threw it over at Logan, his smirk growing into a full-on smile.

“Wh- Virgil?” Logan said. He moved out of the way just in time for Roman to smack a snowball square in the middle of Virgil’s chest. He looked down, slowly, and Thomas froze. Was he going to snap? Was Thomas going to break into a panic attack, here, right outside the airport? He didn’t know if he could take that.

Virgil looked back up, a devilish look in his eyes. Oh no. No no no. He was ready. He grabbed another snowball, packing it tightly. There was a sharp not-unpleasant tingling in his fingers. He launched the snowball at Logan once again, and it hit him smack in the glasses. Logan wiped his face, a fire set in his eyes.

“Oh, it is so on.”

Thomas walked through the clear glass door to the front of the airport, standing in line for security. He watched three of his sides angrily toss snowballs out of the corner of his eye. Logan was calm and calculating with every throw. Roman was so graceful he almost appeared to be dancing. Virgil was more erratic, just throwing what he felt like when he felt like it. Thomas just hoped they didn’t get him in trouble. It’s not like there was anything he could do, he was the only one who could see them. But there was always the what-ifs.

Patton popped up next to Virgil. “Looks like the sides are a little unbalanced, kiddo. Want a little help from dear old dad?” Patton said. Sure enough, the fight was two-on-one, and it seemed that Virgil was losing.

“Sure, whatever,” Virgil said. He threw a snowball at Roman, hitting him in the shoulder. Roman responded, tossing one his way. Patton ducked. “Hey. You’re pretty good at that.”

“Well, I do have some tricks up my sleeve,” Patton said. He packed a snowball. Leveling eyes with Logan, Patton pulled his arm into an underhand fastpitch, smacking Logan with so much force it literally made him stumble.

“Wh- how have you been practicing that? We’ve never even seen snow!” Viril said. He avoided another snowball thrown by Logan.

“I-” Patton started, looking over to Virgil. It was like he realized something, but Virgil wasn’t sure quite what it was. Patton set down the snowball he’d been making. “You’re not acting like you, Virgil. Is everything good?”

Virgil did a double take. He wasn’t acting like-? Oh. No. He wasn’t. He wasn’t acting like him at all. He was having fun, he was teasing the other sides, he wasn’t looking out for Thomas-- where was Thomas?

“Oh. You’re right. Oh god. I can’t believe I wasn’t thinking,” Virgil said. His hands moved to the sides of his head. “Oh god. What if he gets hurt? What if he gets cold? What if-- what if he gets hypothermia he’ll die and no one will remember him and oh my god this is all my fault.”

“Ssh, ssh, no, Virgil, wait,” Patton said. “That’s not what I meant, buddy. Can you breathe for me?”

Virgil couldn’t believe himself. Stupid stupid stupid! He was letting Thomas down and he wasn’t doing his job and he was just slacking off, and--

“I do want to see you happy and enjoying life! I was just surprised, that’s all! It seemed so unlike you…” Patton’s voice droned out in Virgil’s head. It didn’t matter. He was abandoning post. He wasn’t doing his job. God, how could he?

Patton was worried. Virgil had stopped responding, and was all but zoning out. He turned for help to Logan and Roman, but the two of them were just bickering in the background. Patton sighed. Wow. He didn’t know what to do. It was almost like Virgil was frozen-- Frozen! That’s it!

Patton smacked Virgil with a snowball, right on the center of his cheek. Virgil looked up at Patton. Patton gave a cheesy smile, and he was expecting Virgil to do the same. Virgil just slowly put a hand to his reddening cheek, not changing his expression. “Guess you could say you’re frozen in fear,” Patton said. “Get it? Because you’re fear, and you’re frozen?”

Virgil was about to have a panic attack. Thomas was in a tight space with lots of people and snow will kill them and how could he let his guard down, this was all his fault, and--

Patton put a hand on his shoulder.

Oh.

Patton was there.

Patton…

Patton was always there.

Before either Virgil or Patton could say anything, they were whisked to Thomas’s new location, standing over by the baggage check. It was much warmer indoors. Virgil rubbed a hand slowly over his cheek. That hurt.

“I’m sorry, Virge,” Patton said. Virgil looked up. He still hadn’t said anything about… anything. “You do your job so well. Probably the best out of all of us, and I mean that. You keep Thomas so, so safe, and he’s a much better person because of you.” Virgil looked over to Thomas. He was clasped in a tight hug with Joan, and he pulled away with a smile. He moved in to hug Talyn. “But, Virgil. You have to let yourself have fun sometimes, too.”

Huh. That was a foreign concept to Virgil. He wasn’t one to let himself take a moment to relax, but. Whatever just happened outside? He liked that. And if Thomas was clearly happy…

About twenty minutes later and they were in the car, Talyn behind the wheel and Joan in the passenger seat. Thomas was sitting in the back right seat, looking out the window. Snow was falling slightly now, just tiny flurries waving in the wind. Thomas looked over to see Virgil project himself, sinking in to the car. He was peering out the left window, a certain wonder on his face. It wasn’t long before Patton had appeared next to him in the middle seat, looking out over his shoulder.

Virgil calmed himself. Like Patton said. It was okay. He rolled the window down just a touch, looking out at the shining snow with its slight sparkle. Yeah. Yeah, he does enjoy this. He is allowed to enjoy this.

Virgil felt Patton’s hand on top of his in the middle seat. He looked up to see him, mocha eyes still staring out the window as if he didn’t know. Virgil intertwined their fingers with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of the 12 Days of Shipmas challenge! This week's prompt: First Snow! Thanks for reading!


End file.
